Top DOJ People Betting Their Careers That Special Counsel Robert Mueller Will Take Down Trump

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s strategy appears to be equal parts sophisticated and aggressive. He’s personally taking over the existing investigations into Donald Trump’s various associates. He’s hiring some of the most accomplished legal minds out there. But what may be most telling is who all has been willing to join him effort, and the bets they’re placing accordingly.

NEW HIRES

In the past week Robert Mueller has hired away two of the top people at the Department of Justice, Michael Dreeben (link) and Andrew Weissmann (link), for his own Trump-Russia investigation team. It’s not a surprise that Mueller is swinging for the fences, as he didn’t take on a case of this magnitude without planning to take things to the fullest.

MUELLER’S PROBE WILL SUCEED

But it’s the willingness of people like Dreeben and Weissmann to join him that stands out. They’re giving up their high ranking jobs and seniority at the Department of Justice to go to work for Mueller instead. That suggests they’re confident in a few different things. They view Mueller’s probe will be substantial enough to serve as a legitimate career move, and not some brief parenthetical entity. They also believe Mueller’s probe is likely to succeed in fully exposing the Trump-Russia scandal, or else they wouldn’t sign on for a losing cause that could only serve to harm their own reputations.

TRUMP AND SESSION

What stands out the most is that these top DOJ people may be banking on the idea that Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions won’t still be in charge of the Department of Justice by the time the Special Counsel investigation is over. After this, there’s no way the Trump administration would ever allow them to work at the DOJ again. But if they’re betting that they can take down Trump and Sessions, then there would be nothing to prevent them from returning to the DOJ when this is over.